This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Applications No. 11-089405, filed Mar. 30, 1999; and No. 11-163964, filed Jun. 10, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to a navigation apparatus and, more particularly, to a navigation apparatus adapted to modify navigation-related information according to the relative position and orientation of the object of navigation and the target within a three-dimensional space.
This invention also relates to a surgical operation image acquisition/display apparatus and, more particularly, to an operation image acquisition/display apparatus adapted to acquisition and display images of a plurality of observation systems used in surgical operations.
Various navigation apparatus have been proposed for applications in the field of surgical operations, including those disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication Nos. 9-173352 and 10-5245.
The medical navigation system disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-173352 is adapted to display information (profile information, medical image information) on the desired part of the object of examination specified by a specifying section for specifying a desired part of the object of examination.
It is also adapted to display video information obtained by an appearance imaging section, profile information on the profile measured by a profile measuring section and medical image information obtained by a medical image acquisition section on an image display section in an overlaid way.
The surgical operation assisting apparatus disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-5245 is adapted to display the current position of the surgical instrument being used in a surgical operation and the blood vessel located closest to the instrument on a tomographic image of the area of surgical operation in an overlaid manner by using the image data on the tomographic image, the surgical instrument being used, blood vessel detection section for detecting the blood vessel located closest to the surgical instrument, a position detection section for detecting the current position of the surgical instrument, an arithmetic computing section for computationally determines the position of the front end of the surgical instrument and the direction in which the surgical instrument is inserted, an image selection section for selecting the image data on the image being acquired for the area where the front end of the surgical instrument is located and an image synthesizing section for synthetically combining the image selected by the image selection section and a predetermined pattern indicating the front end of the surgical instrument in an overlaid manner.
The above described arrangement is intended to allow the operator to visually confirm the position of the front end of the surgical instrument inserted into the body of the patient on the tomographic image being displayed.
However, the medical navigation system and the surgical operation assisting apparatus as disclosed in the above patent documents are accompanied by the following problems.
As for the medical navigation system disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-173352, it simply displays information on a desired part of the object of examination specified by the section for specifying a desired part of the object of examination and it is difficult to navigate the section to the part desired by the user.
Additionally, this known medical navigation system provides a difficulty with which the surgeon realizes distances in the perspective of displayed information in the direction connecting the eyes of the surgeon and the display screen that is perpendicular to the latter.
Furthermore, this known medical navigation system provides an additional difficulty with which the surgeon determines the route of navigation on the basis of the displayed information when both the object of examination and the section for specifying the desired part of the object of examination are located at respective positions that are found within the measurable area but outside the displayable area of the system.
The surgical operation assisting system disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-5245 is accompanied by a problem of cumbersomeness that the user has to be constantly aware of the distance between the position of the front end of the surgical instrument on the displayed tomographic image and the position of the detected blood vessel in order to know the distance between the blood vessel and the surgical instrument.
In recent years, micro-surgery has become popular as a result of the development of both surgical techniques and surgical instruments.
In micro-surgery, generally a surgical microscope is used to observe an enlarged view of the area of surgical operation.
Particularly, in the field of cranial nerve surgery and otorhinolarygology, there arise occasions frequently where the area of operation can hardly be observed because it is at the so-called dead angle if the surgical microscope is handled elaborately when the area is located deep in the body.
For observing an area at such a dead angle, normally a mirror or an endoscope is used.
When using an endoscope for micro-surgery, it has to manipulated and placed accurately at the right position that is located deep in the body having an exquiarealy complicated three-dimensional structure because the area of operation is always at the dead angle of the surgical microscope.
The manipulation has to be conducted carefully by the operator, while observing it through the surgical microscope so. that any normal tissues of the patient would not be inadvertently damaged by the endoscope and, at the same time, the area of operation has to be visually confirmed by means of the endoscope.
While manipulating the endoscope, the operator has to select instantaneously either the image taken by the surgical microscope or the image acquired by way of the endoscope as object of observation and the selection has to be correct.
As an attempt for aiding a surgeon manipulating the endoscope, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 5-203881 proposes an integrated image system comprising a plurality of CCD cameras connected to respective observation systems, each including a surgical microscope, an endoscope and other instruments, a CCD camera controller for controlling the operation of selectively using any of the observation systems and a view finder controller so that the user may select any of the observation systems by means of the CCD camera controller in the course of the ongoing surgical operation.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-261094 discloses a surgical microscope with which the user can switch from the image of the surgical microscope to that of the endoscope or vice versa or overlay one on the other whenever necessary.
However, with the known technique disclosed in the above described Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 5-203881, the operator has to carry out the switching or overlaid operation at the cost of a smooth progress of the ongoing surgical operation.
Additionally, while the above patent document describes that the image may be switched from one to the other, it does not describe specifically how the switching operation proceeds.
On the other hand, the known technique disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-261094 involves the use of a mode switch with which the surgical operator can switch the display mode whenever necessary.
However, it is highly cumbersome for the operator to switch from the image of the surgical microscope to that of the endoscope or vice versa when he or she has to place the endoscope in a position deep in the body of the patient having an exquiarealy complicated three-dimensional structure. Additionally, such a switching operation can obstruct the smooth progress of the surgical operation.
In view of the above identified problems of the prior art, it is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a navigation apparatus with which the user can easily and visually realize the distance between a target and an object of navigation by modifying the obtained navigation-related information according to the relative position and orientation of the object of navigation and the target within a three-dimensional space and the user can easily obtain navigation-related information of the type necessary for the user.
Another object of the invention is to provide an operation image acquisition/display apparatus adapted to acquire and display images of a plurality of observation systems used in surgical operations without requiring the operator to manually switch from one observation system to another so that the ongoing surgical operation may proceed smoothly.
In the first aspect of the invention, the above first object is achieved by providing a navigation apparatus comprising:
a navigation-related information generating section for generating navigation-related information by measuring the relative position and orientation of an object and a target in a three-dimensional space in order to navigate the object to the target; and
a display section for displaying the navigation-related information generated by the navigation-related information generating section in different modes according to the relative position and orientation of the object and the target.
Thus, according to the invention, a navigation apparatus is provided that is adapted to display navigation-related information in different modes according to the relative position and orientation of the object and the target within a three-dimensional space.
A navigation apparatus according to the invention will be described hereinafter in terms of the first and second embodiments. While the above target may normally be a patient, a tumor to be surgically treated in a patient or an area of the body of a patient requiring special attention during a surgical operation, it is by no means limited to an existing object of examination and may alternatively be a virtual target displayed a two-dimensional or three-dimensional image of a model synthesized by using the video information of an existing target that is obtained in advance.
While the above object may normally refer to an endoscope 3, it may alternatively refer to some other surgical instrument such as a suction pipe or a pair of forceps.
While the above display section may normally refer to a liquid crystal monitor, it may alternatively refer to some other video information display such as a CRT display or a head mount display.
For the purpose of the invention, the above expression xe2x80x9cin different modesxe2x80x9d refers to differences in color, in the thickness of line, in dimensions and in the density of drawing.
In the second aspect of the invention, the above second object is achieved by providing a surgical operation image acquisition/display apparatus comprising:
an observation section having a plurality of observation section and adapted to modify its position and orientation;
an image display section adapted to alternatively or synthetically display the images obtained by the plurality of observation section of the observation section; and
an indication section for indicating the images to be displayed.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.